This invention relates to “beware of” alerting signs commonly used on gates and fences of homes, buildings and other properties and alarm devices intended to warn of presence of a guard dog, or to deter an intruder and warn a property owner of presence of an intruder. More specifically, this invention relates to an alerting sign that is aesthetically more appealing, pronounced, realistic and forceful than the existing art, thus improving its effectiveness and encouraging the usage.
Devices warning of a presence of a guard animal, such as a dog, have been widely utilized around the world for a very long time. The most common beware of dog signs are plastic sheets with “Beware of Dog” printed on them. The usage of these signs is limited by their unattractive appearance which makes their acquisition less likely. Moreover, the effectiveness of such signs is compromised by wear due to poor quality of the materials employed in their construction and poor visibility under inadequate lighting conditions. The visibility problem is worsened in case of children who cannot read or others with impaired eyesight. Finally, such signs are not visible at night time at all. Their effectiveness in actually deterring an intruder is even lower, especially at night or under conditions of poor visibility.
Other means of warning, typically employing audio warnings and lighting fixtures have been employed to discourage intruders form entering the areas sought to be protected. The inherent limitation that all these devices have is their limited effectiveness as their threat is limited to the audio message or lighting up of a physical space. Similarly, visual information only, such as warning sign, is also inadequate as the amount of visual information in environment around us has reached the level of visual “pollution”, making such devices alone easy to ignore, as the people likely to encounter them become accustomed and oblivious to excessive amount of visual information.
The inventions disclosed in following patents attempt to address these problem, but each has its limitations as it fails to integrate all the components of the warning into one forceful message.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,912,457 and 5,726,629 produce audio and visual warnings upon detecting a person, the '457 patent being used in industry to remind a machine operator about pertinent safeguards and the '629 patent discloses a home security application whereby the sound of a dog barking can be delivered to the intruder whose presence is detected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,760,686 discloses a device that warns workers in a roadway work zone of an errant vehicle by the use of motion detectors targeting the perimeter of the zone and a strobe light array.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,773 discloses an alerting audio device based on the motion detector technology that also illuminates a sign to remind the persons of the nearby danger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,629 discloses an invention combining heat seeking infrared sensors that, upon detecting heat radiation by the moving object, sends an electronic signal that activates a lighting fixture and an audio source to warn an intruder entering the area monitored by the motion detector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,446 employees the approach similar to the U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,629 to detect the presence of an animal and to frighten it from the protected area.
There are other commercially available products that attempt to serve the same warning function. One of such products, Electronic Watch Dog by Pentagon Defense Products utilizes microwave technology to detect movement and activate a German Shepherd bark. Again, this is an audio warning only that lacks the visual reinforcement that a warning sign would provide and falls far short of the forceful effect of a warning replica of a guard dog.
The device of this invention eliminates the deficiencies described above, improves the warning sign visibility and combines an audio alarm with an illuminated replica of an animal or other suitable object for an enhanced effect.